1. Field of the Invention
Broadly the invention relates to rope pulling devices. More specifically, it concerns devices that a person may hold in a hand to grasp a rope to assist in rapid, forceful pulling of the rope.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous devices exist to help pull ropes, cables or other lines. These vary from simple, hand-held items to more complicated equipment such as winches and windlass machines. This invention concerns improvements in the simple, hand-held type of rope puller.
It is frequently necessary to rapidly pull a length of rope through a sheave or the like to move a weight or other item attached to the other end of the rope. Usually the task requires that strong tension be applied to the rope and also that the rope move rapidly. A primative way for increasing tension in the hand pulling of a rope is to wrap the rope around a hand, pull the rope a short distance, unwrap the rope to move the hand forward on the rope, rewrap and repull and repeat this until the required length of rope has been pulled. The wrapping and unwrapping slows down the operation and can bruise the puller's hand. This invention concerns rope pullers that permit maximum tension to be applied to the rope while increasing the speed with which the rope is pulled.
The rope pullers of the invention include a wedge section that grasps a rope inserted therein. It is known in the art to use wedge members to grasp or cleat ropes, e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,785.